Heavenly Blade
by DGRAYLIGER
Summary: Post Guardian Force-Lt Amelia O'Connell from Republican Army and her best friend Ellie Riefenstahl from Imperial Army join the Guardian Force and find a young man who's lost his memory in the ruins of New Helic...  Thanks Shadow55419 for the translation
1. Prologue

**PROLOGUE**

The oldest memory Clare had was the funeral of her mother that she witnessed at the age four.

She was still too small to under stand what was happening, but she did understand one thing, she was never going to see her mother again. It was a horrible thought, and that feeling caused her to wake up from nightmares, feeling like the monsters from her dreams were in the real world and would come to haunt her when she opened her eyes. The same horrible feeling she felt in the bottom of her stomach when she was in a high place and looking down, the idea of what calamity was waiting at the bottom of a dark pit, it terrorized her constantly.

But the most horrible thing was that her father wept.

O'Connell took his daughter's hand in trembling hand, trying to maintain control over the tears in his eyes, they flowed down his face like rivers anyway. Clare was crying also, she embraced his leg and hid her face in the rough fabric of his uniform. The sound of dirt covering the lid of the coffin flowed into their ears making Clare cry even harder. She covered her ears with her hands, even with her eyes firmly closed against her father's leg, she couldn't stand those sounds, they were worse in her nightmares. Now she no longer had a mother, no one to scare away the monsters, not one to say a few comforting words and hold her hand while she went back to sleep without fear. No more all powerful mom to scare away the badness of the dark.

It seemed to be an eternity before Clare dared to uncover her ear and embrace her father again. Many people approached them and gave their condolences to her and her father. The wondered why that every time someone offered "condolences" her father only seemed to become sadder. She was dying to ask, but she was too overwhelmed by sadness and fear and the heavy atmosphere to do so. Even Captain Herman, her godfather, approached them, he did offer condolences like everyone else, he simply placed a hand on his shoulder and squeezed firmly before leaving them again, a gesture that O'Connell appeared to be thankful for, she saw the outline of a smile on his face.

Everyone eventually left and Clare and her father were alone against the covered with flowers. Clare had yet to learn to read but even so she could decipher the words on the tombstone: Selina O'Connell.

Below came the dates of birth and death, and under that engraved on gray marble and highlighted in gold was a drawing of her mother's white Pteras, Polaris.

O'Connell took his daughter in his arms, Clare held him around the neck with her arms, and both contemplated the tombstone a few moments. Then, the man turned around and smiled sadly.

"It seems that now it's just the two of us," he muttered, he trembled in her arms, and she felt him start crying on her shoulder. "Clare, I promise everything will be fine," he stuttered.


	2. Chapter 1

_**Hel-lo there! Well, finally chapter I is up! Sorry for keeping ya waiting but since I'm not writing this chronologically (I just write random bits that come to my mind and send them to Shadow55419 so he can translate them) it's difficult to make an actual chapter out of that. I'm a crappy and messy writer I know XD.**_

_**Before we start with the chapter I must tell you something important, and that is that this fanfic is related to Shadow55419's fanfics, The Death Tiger and Tiger's Revenge; in the first one, something interesting happen to O'Connell and I highly recommend you to read it before you read this so you can understand it better… uh-oh. Come to think of it this is kinda spoiler-ish… oh well. Heavenly Blade happens a year after the events narrated in the Death Tiger, that's what I wanted to say… hmm… maybe I should say something else… like, R&R please… I love reading your comments and critiques! **_

_**Thanks again to Shadow55419 for the translation and help!**_

**CHAPTER I: 13 YEARS LATER**

Her father was dead.

Like her mother, he was dead, he would never come back again.

That was all she could think about and this thought was so overwhelming she couldn't even cry.

During the funeral while a man dressed in black spoke, Clare let her mind wander through her memories. The voice of the man become an echo in the background of colored figures and ash that they surrounded. The coffin was covered with the flag of the Republic of Helic. They slowly lowered the coffin into the ground, as she watched through a black veil. The coffin was sinking slowly more and more into their thoughts, her memories became clearer then reality, and she was returned to the last day that she had seen her father alive.

_Clare approached her father followed closely by Polaris. "I'm ready," She announced voice nothing but serious. O'Connell turned to his daughter and looked at her as if it were the first time. "You really don't think you can go do you?" O'Connell asked. The young blue haired girl frowned._

"_What do you mean?" Clare replied with a stubborn tone, "Of course I'm going,"_

"_Clare you're not going, that's final," O'Connell said resorting to his fatherly tone and a frown. Wearing the same expression, this was one of the few times they had looked so similar._

"_But…" Clare trying to come up with a way to challenge her father._

"_I said no, Clare," O'Connell snapped. "You're not recovered yet."_

"_Of course I am," Clare replied raising her voice. "I'm perfectly fine"._

_The man came up and put his hand on her left shoulder, barely putting any weight on it. Clare wasn't expecting this and let out a growl of pain while pulling herself away from his hand, Her face turned red as a cherry, and her fury showed towards her father._

"_You were saying?" O'Connell said, moving away from her and crossing his arms over his chest and raised his eyebrow. Clare gritted her teeth in rage, while she held her sore shoulder in her other hand._

"_It was perfectly alight until you did that," She snapped, and seeing her father staring at her with an air of superiority, her anger only grew. "I'm not a baby anymore dad," She exclaimed raising her voice. "I want to fight! I have Polaris, isn't that enough to compensate for my injuries." She screamed._

_SLAP!_

_Clare faltered, and fell stunned. The fingers of her father were clearly drawn in red on her pale skin. The girl put her hand to her cheek, without believing what had just happened, she looked at her father. Polaris issued a stay growl and took a step back as well, lowering his head in fear. Herman, Irvine and Van had been left in a stunned silence._

"_I already said no Clare," O'Connell repeated in a tone cold as ice, a tone Clare almost didn't recognize._

_Clare took a few seconds to recover from the shock, and when she did, she felt her eyes filling with tears of anger. That was the first time he had ever hit her… and he had done it in front of everyone, as if she were seven years old instead of seventeen._

_The silence, so thick you could cut the tension with a knife, filled the hanger as father and daughter watched each other with identical expressions of contained rage._

_Finally, with a scream of frustration that unsuccessfully hid a sob, Clare turned around and went into a dead run in the opposite direction, followed by her Organoid, with her hand still on her cheek, until she was out of sight._

_Herman broke the silence by releasing a breath of uncomfortable air. O'Connell returned to his superior. He saw that they were both as uncomfortable as the others. The two men stared in silence for a few moments._

"_I'll apologize when we get back," O'Connell finally said, causing Herman to smile._

"_If we get back someday," they joked, unaware that for one of them the joke would soon become a horrible reality._

The girl was standing a few steps away from the tombstone in silence before returning to reality with a sigh. Polaris, gently rubbed his white muzzle against her cheek, and she smiled briefly with sadness in her eyes before whispering:

"It seems the now its only you and me, Polaris,"

She heard steps approaching, and seconds later she felt a firm hand on her shoulder. She looked up and courageously forced a smile for her god father, Rob Herman.

The man returned the smile so feigned like hers, and he also turned to the tombstone. Clare felt a tremendous need to embrace him and hid her face on his chest to mourn, but her pride prevented her. Swallowing her tears, she remained silent.

"Are you alright, Clare?" Herman asked quietly, Clare simply nodded. She had never felt so eager to mourn. The man briefly squeezed her shoulder, opened his mouth to say something, and then seemed to think better and closed it again. He again pressed her shoulder, lowered his eyes and walked away, leaving her alone with Polaris.

Clare waited for the sound of his footsteps fade in the distance before drying a tear that had escaped her right eye rather abruptly.

"We'll be alright Polaris," Clare muttered passing a arm around the thick white collar of her Organoid, who groaned as sigh of consent. "Some how everything will be fine," Clare whispered.

It had been a year since her father's death, Clare was now a lieutenant in the Republican side of the Guardian Force, her Organoid Polaris was still with the blue haired daughter of Major O'Connell. She and her best friend Ellie had been assigned to investigate a series of large explosions in a city close by.

Ellie is an 18 year old member of the Guardian Force. Standing at five foot six inches tall, she has shoulder length pink hair worn down most of the time and hazel eyes, she has three chevron shaped tattoos under her right eye and three more chevrons tattooed on her right arm. She usually wears a pair of black boxing gloves and a tank top, with workout type pants and sneakers. She likes kick boxing, and tattoos, which is why she has so many.

They were walking through a nearly completely destroyed section of the city. The buildings that remained standing were not structurally sound, and the ones that weren't left rubble scattered for what seemed like miles.

"I really can't believe it." Ellie's voice was strangely amplified by the piles of rubble and half destroyed buildings, this almost startled Clare who walked a few yards ahead of her, who was followed by Polaris.

"What?" The girl with blue hair asked, as she turned to her friend. Ellie drew her attention to the ruins that surrounded them with a vague gesture with her head.

"That this was New Helic," Ellie replied.

"See the good side of it," Clare replied without a smile. "At least it isn't all of New Helic," she obviously saw as many good things there as Ellie did, in other words, none. Polaris let out a soft growl to alert the young women. They stopped in front of the remains of a large building that seemed to be standing only by sheer luck. Polaris let out another growl.

"Seems that he wants us to go in there," Clare said.

"I'm not crazy enough to go in there Polaris," Ellie groaned. Polaris let out a low dog like growl.

The Sun rose and the heat became increasingly unbearable, and everything they saw was waving as though it were underwater. It was eerie to find a city at this time of day, even a crumbling one, and see it completely lifeless.

"Well, we came here to investigate, didn't we?" snapped Clare as she impatiently walked towards the building. Ellie watched her with horror coursing through every fiber of her being.

"Clare, it's dangerous, this building could collapse at any time!" Ellie exclaimed.

"Aren't we paid to do dangerous things," Clare responded in an uncompromising tone. "Besides, as I said before, they sent us here to investigate. Maybe we can find something about the person who detonated those bombs," she added, only to see Ellie's mouth open to start protesting here decision. "Besides, Polaris would never send us in there if we weren't going to find something," she finished as she placed her hand on the white bear's head as if to back him up. She pulled her hand away because of his metal body being hot due to the suns heat.

Ellie reluctantly followed Clare into the ruined building. Her eyes took a few seconds to adapt the darkness inside, but her body thanked the place for the coolness that reigned there, especially after long hours spent in the hot sun. As soon as she could see clearly she went about helping Clare.

Clare explored their surroundings with curiosity, as if she was standing in her favorite game and not a crime scene. _'I know it's not Clare's greatest quality, but initially not taking things so seriously its possible foe her to see things nobody else can,' _Ellie thought as she continued to look around her.

"Have you found anything yet?" Ellie asked.

"No not yet," Clare replied.

They were standing in what had once been a hotel, in the huge space devoted to the lobby. The glass doors and windows had been blown out in the explosions. The large spider glass roof had collapsed, and it lay on the carpet-covered floor. The lobby had two stair cases that clung to the outsides of the curved walls, which lead to the second floor, only one was left standing. The wood creaked with each step, giving the impression that they could break at any time, especially when it was stepped on by the huge Polaris.

"Well. We haven't found anything yet," Ellie said impatiently waiting to leave. "Are we going?" she asked.

"No we aren't," Clare repeated, without looking at her. She was busy looking at a part of the floor which seemed to be sunken in near the stair case. "Ellie, what do you think of that?" Clare asked pointing at the spot.

"I don't know, Clare there is nothing here, seriously let's go. This place is giving me the creeps," Ellie said visibly shivering.

"And if there is someone down there?" Clare snapped. She was kneeling beside a large circular portion of the wooden planks that had sunken. "They may need help," Clare finished

"The medical crews passed through here, if there was somebody here they would have found them," Ellie argued with a strained voice. "Clare lets go already," she said looking around.

"Alright," Clare said letting out a sigh of resignation, and Ellie turned the exit relieved they were finally getting out of there. "But don't tell that you lo…"

She didn't finish her sentence because a tremendous roar was heard. Ellie was startled to hear Polaris let out a growl of fear. The ground had fallen through under the weight of the Organoid, dragging Clare with him.

"Clare!" Ellie exclaimed. She ran to the hole falling to her knees trying to set her eyes on Clare and Polaris.

Clare lay face up on the floor, stunned by the pain, it didn't look as though she was injured, and this caused Ellie to breathe a sigh of relief.

"I can't get five minutes without getting you out of trouble?" Ellie asked, making Clare laugh with embarrassment, while still sitting there. Polaris sat throwing chips of concrete and dust at Clare.

"Are you crazy? And stop throwing shit at me," Clare's eyes remained fixed on a point not very from where Polaris was sitting.

"Clare," Ellie called, almost falling into the hole when she heard her friend shouting.

"Ellie, Ellie! There is someone down here!" Clare shouted back up to her friend.

"Are you sure it's a person?" Ellie shouted.

Clare ran to the corner of the basement that she and Polaris had fallen into. She knelt down next to a pile of wood that had once been a piece of furniture. She heard a groan.

Ellie jumped through the hole behind them. Under the rubble were a pale arm and short dark green hairs.

"They're alive," Ellie muttered after checking for a pulse on the arm that was showing through the rubble. "We have to get them out of here Clare," Ellie said.

"No kidding, Polaris, get over here," Clare replied.

The Organoid rushed to lift the pieces of wood that trapped the body, revealing that it was a boy, about 19 years old, and covered in wounds. The young man moaned. Clare came and knelt beside him, gently placing his head on her lap for support.

"Can you hear me? Can you see me?" she asked quietly. The boy moaned again and coughed a few times.

"Am… am I alive?" The boy asked in a weak tone. Clare smiled at this.

"More or less, my name is Clare, what's yours?" Clare asked as she brushed some dust off his face.

"Sora, my name is Sora," the boy said in a still very weak tone.


End file.
